NOTES FOR VISITORS: Welcome to the Alaska Outdoors Supersite forums! The contents of our forums are viewable by anyone, and may be read by clicking the forum headings below. To post in the forums, you must register at THIS LINK. To upgrade or change your membership, please login and select Upgrade > Supporting Membership. Your account will now be managed separately from the forum system. Forum login is separate from account management but shares the same username and password.

IMPORTANT: If you cannot log-in, please reset your password using our new 6 character format through THIS LINK and click Forgot Password. An email message with a reset link will be sent to your email address.

...he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. ~Thomas Jefferson
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. ~Gerry Spence
The last thing Alaska needs is another bigot. ~member Catch It#Resist

I was getting info from PD after I landed here in FAI. It was good both survived, though as of yesterday one was in a tough way. Today is a hard day for family.
Thx to the people on the ground for responding so quickly, getting gear, starting a search, finding the planes and pilots. That has to be tough to not know what you'll find, but you go anyway because it is the right thing to do.
ARR

NTSB: Witnesses described Mat-Su midair collision as being high above ground
Zaz Hollander
February 2, 2015
Share on emailEmail Print
-A +A
The wreckage of a Super Cub rests in the woods near Sunset Road, off of Knik-Goose Bay Road in Wasilla, on Saturday, January 31, 2015. The pilot, whose plane collided midair with an Alaska Wildlife Troopers Super Cub, was life-flighted to Providence hospital in Anchorage. The pilot of the other airplane was taken by ambulance to Mat-Su Regional Hospital. Loren Holmes / Alaska Dispatch News

WASILLA -- Preliminary reports from witnesses indicate two Piper PA-18 Super Cub airplanes may have been 1,000 feet above the ground when they collided southwest of Wasilla on Saturday.

Both pilots -- 52-year-old Jeffry Bara of Eagle River and 35-year-old Levi Duell, an Alaska wildlife trooper from Anchorage -- survived the midair collision and subsequent crash of their small planes in fairly remote terrain near a private airstrip.

Authorities did not have updates on the pilots' medical conditions as of late afternoon Monday.

An ambulance took Duell to Mat-Su Regional Medical Center with what were described as moderate injuries. Bara, whose injuries were described by responders as “critical,” was flown by a LifeMed Alaska helicopter to Providence Alaska Medical Center in Anchorage.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Brice Banning spent Monday moving between the separate crash sites in a heavily wooded area near Knik-Goose Bay and Vine roads. Banning said "preliminary data" from witnesses put the collision at 1,000 feet above ground.

“We have some eyewitnesses that observed the collision and we have some eyewitnesses that observed the airplanes after the collision,” Banning said.

He said he hadn’t been able to talk with either pilot yet.

The collision area is in the middle of a Talkeetna-to-Palmer swath of airspace under new radio frequency regulations triggered by a 2011 midair collision near Trapper Creek that killed a family of four. Banning said the witness reports on Saturday's collision were still preliminary and he’s still piecing together details. He said he planned to closely examine radio traffic at the time of the accident as part of a larger investigation.

Bara was certificated as a commercial pilot in 2008, according to a Federal Aviation Administration database. No one answered the phone at his home on Monday.

Authorities had little information about Bara’s itinerary. He did not file a flight plan and investigators haven’t been able to speak with his family members, NTSB Alaska chief Clint Johnson said Monday.

Duell works out of the Alaska Wildlife Troopers’ Anchorage office. He left for a routine wildlife patrol Saturday, Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said in an email. He took off from Wasilla and was apparently going to check on a cabin before heading to Lake Hood in Anchorage, investigators say.

The trooper’s plane was removed from the crash site Monday, Johnson said. Bara’s plane remained in place and discussions were underway about removing it, most likely by helicopter but possibly by sled.

Matanuska-Susitna Borough airspace is increasingly busy with small planes. The fastest-growing region in Alaska is home to numerous small airports and scores of private airstrips.

A midair collision over the Palmer Hay Flats in 2006 killed five people in two planes: Wasilla pilot David Beauregard and his children, ages 16, 13 and 9; and Chugiak resident William Smoke, chief pilot in Alaska for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. An NTSB report later found that the probable cause was “inadequate visual lookout” by both pilots resulting in a failure to see and avoid each other.

Anchorage pilot Corey Carlson died in the 2011 collision of two floatplanes near Trapper Creek, as did his wife, Hetty, and their two daughters, ages 5 and 3.

That accident prompted the FAA to streamline radio frequencies after federal investigators discovered the two pilots were on different frequencies at the time and unable to hear each other. Pilots in Wasilla, Willow and Big Lake are on the same frequency now and Palmer pilots on another, one local pilot said.

Banning said his investigation of Saturday's crash “will encompass radio traffic” as well as weather, equipment, glare and all the other factors NTSB has to weigh. He expects to release a preliminary report on the accident next week.

Pilot and flight instructor Ray Johnson, who has a hangar at the private South Hollywood Airstrip within a mile of the crash sites, said he didn’t see the collision but got a call about it within about 10 minutes of hearing a plane fly over followed by a strange, clanking sound in the far distance.

Johnson said it may be a mistake to pin blame on radio traffic -- or a lack of it -- before the facts of this particular collision are known.

“It only takes a couple of seconds for a person to look out a window and watch a moose or something for another airplane to come on,” he said. “That’s like 200 miles an hour coming together -- each one of them doing 100. It only takes a couple of seconds.”

I will be interested in determining who is at fault. A trooper flying at 1000 ft smells like he was doing nothing but looking down at the ground looking for a bust instead of flying his plane. Maybe this is the wake up call they both need. I am always looking around never just staring at the ground. I have been on a collision corse with another plane before and stayed on it to see if he would move at all and he dident so I just broke right since I can but theres alot of people up there not paying attention.

[QUOTE=rppearso;1457208]I will be interested in determining who is at fault. A trooper flying at 1000 ft smells like he was doing nothing but looking down at the ground looking for a bust instead of flying his plane. Maybe this is the wake up call they both need. I am always looking around never just staring at the ground. I have been on a collision corse with another plane before and stayed on it to see if he would move at all and he dident so I just broke right since I can but theres alot of people up there not paying attention.[/QUOTE

I've often wondered: if a pilot is so ****ed interested in what's on the ground, why the hell didn't he just stay down there in the first place???

Yep! And as a guide, when counting game for the fall seasons, I either flew high enough that I wasn't going to bother with checking horn size or else I took one of my assistants with me for that chore.

I will be interested in determining who is at fault. A trooper flying at 1000 ft smells like he was doing nothing but looking down at the ground looking for a bust instead of flying his plane. Maybe this is the wake up call they both need. I am always looking around never just staring at the ground. I have been on a collision corse with another plane before and stayed on it to see if he would move at all and he dident so I just broke right since I can but theres alot of people up there not paying attention.[/QUOTE

I've often wondered: if a pilot is so ****ed interested in what's on the ground, why the hell didn't he just stay down there in the first place???

Aside from those flying to get from point A to point B, do you think pilots go up in planes to get a better look at the clouds?

I dont understand why the troops dont have a spotter in the plane or helicopter with them. They have all kinds of redundancy on the ground with extra cars, partners, dogs, etc. But with the planes and choppers they dont and there is an extra seat in all cases.

Originally Posted by Grizzly 2

Yep! And as a guide, when counting game for the fall seasons, I either flew high enough that I wasn't going to bother with checking horn size or else I took one of my assistants with me for that chore.

...he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors. ~Thomas Jefferson
I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. ~Gerry Spence
The last thing Alaska needs is another bigot. ~member Catch It#Resist

Black Helicopters. They are everywhere....
Actually there are a couple runways around that area, so extra vigilance is required.

The closest I ever came to a mid-air was with a flight of C-130s over the Valley. It was in late fall and the sun was setting as the first one passed by my PA-12s starboard wing. They were a few feet lower so their wingtip went 20 feet under my right tire. I could see into their cockpit and both pilots were looking and pointing at a chart they had unfolded in front of them. The two other C-130s saw me and broke right. I think the sun was masking my nav lights and old beacon as they overtook me from behind.

Since the FAA is making a fuss about these LED lights these old lights are going to get someone killed. I have heard that there are some TSO LED lights now but they cost a fortune and they are still just standard LED lights. This is an example of the FAA causing more harm than good.

I would love to put at least one anti collision light on my plane but im not paying close to a grand for one

Originally Posted by Float Pilot

Black Helicopters. They are everywhere....
Actually there are a couple runways around that area, so extra vigilance is required.

The closest I ever came to a mid-air was with a flight of C-130s over the Valley. It was in late fall and the sun was setting as the first one passed by my PA-12s starboard wing. They were a few feet lower so their wingtip went 20 feet under my right tire. I could see into their cockpit and both pilots were looking and pointing at a chart they had unfolded in front of them. The two other C-130s saw me and broke right. I think the sun was masking my nav lights and old beacon as they overtook me from behind.

I will be interested in determining who is at fault. A trooper flying at 1000 ft smells like he was doing nothing but looking down at the ground looking for a bust instead of flying his plane. Maybe this is the wake up call they both need. I am always looking around never just staring at the ground. I have been on a collision corse with another plane before and stayed on it to see if he would move at all and he dident so I just broke right since I can but theres alot of people up there not paying attention.

I don't think this is what anyone needs. Let's say these two converged. Then, if they were reporting, is there anyone at fault?